A Better Leg
by Earth Star
Summary: Hiccup tries to make improvements on his fake leg.  Hiccup/Astrid.


Disclaimer: I don't own this series or any of these characters and I don't want to make any profit from this story.

Author's Note: I wrote this story for the Yuletide challenge. I had a lot of fun writing this ^_^

_A Better Leg_

Hiccup tapped the fake leg on his work table. He flipped through the pages in his book to his most recent design. "If I could just make the metal foot wider and thicker I could add that sword."

A gentle growl caused Hiccup to glance to his right. "What, too much?"

Toothless rubbed his head against Hiccup's side. "Hey, that tickles! Fine, no sword, but I should have room for a knife." He looked at the table and frowned. "Which is on the other side of the room." He turned in his chair and eyed the small knife hanging on the wall. Toothless moved close to his side and Hiccup patted his head.

"Let's see how far I can get this time, buddy." Hiccup gripped the chair as he rose. He wobbled, but he refused to let go of the chair until his balance was steady. "Okay," he whispered. He let go of the chair and hopped on his good leg. He grinned as he hopped past the table. "I'm doing it."

However, at the fifth hop, the perfect balance was lost. Hiccup began to fall, but was saved by Toothless's tail. Hiccup grabbed the tail as if it was a cane and turned his head. "Five hops on the one leg, new record."

Toothless growled and rubbed his head into his side. Hiccup patted his head. "Mind leading me to the table?" Toothless then slowly walked ahead as he guided Hiccup to the table. Once he was close enough, Hiccup gripped the table and leaned forward to snatch the knife off. A voice called as he turned to hang onto Toothless's tail again.

"Hiccup? You home?"

He grinned at the voice. "I'm in the work room Astrid!"

Without a word being said, Toothless led Hiccup back to his chair. He was just a few inches away as Astrid entered.

She blinked, as she brushing the fallen snow on her shoulders. She eyed Hiccup suspiciously as she removed her cape and flung it over a near by chair. She frowned and folded her arms. "What are you doing?"

Hiccup shrugged, attempting to look as innocent as possible.. "Just doing what a typical mad genius does. Tinkering with stuff."

Astrid walked. "I'm thinking you're leaning towards more the type of mad genius who is messing with your fake leg despite Gobbler and your dad have ordering you five- no, seven times not to?"

Hiccup sat in his chair and scowled. "I'm not 'messing with it', I'm making improvements." He grinned. "By the way, I broke my hopping record today."

Astrid gave Toothless a gentle scratch as she pulled up a chair. "That's great, although I don't get why you keep trying to move on one leg. Isn't that what the fake one is for? So you can move around without hopping?"

Hiccup picked up his hammer. "Yes, but I like being prepared. What if my fake leg falls off when we're being chased by dragons?"

Toothless raised his head. His eyes narrowed.

"I mean as in wild dangerous dragons," Hiccup quickly replied. "Not you or any of the civilized dragons here in the village." Toothless gave a snort as if to say "I should think so," and curled up next to Hiccup's chair.

Astrid leaned on her hands. "I guess that's a good point." She stared at the fake leg on the table. "You know, you've been handling this really well." She leaned forward. "I mean everyone jokes about losing an arm or a leg, but I'm not sure how I would handle actually losing one."

Hiccup put down his hammer. He and Astrid hadn't really discussed the matter since it had happened a month ago, not that he blamed her. It wasn't exactly a casual dinner topic to bring up with someone. A person could only say "I'm sorry you lost your leg" so many times without getting on the limbless person's nerves.

He recalled the long conversation he had with Gobbler the day after he woke up with his fake leg. He learned a lot more about the man than he ever thought he would.

"I can't say I don't wish to have it back, a leg is a large part of yourself to lose," he pulled the fake leg closer. "But I know moping around won't bring it back." He turned to his dragon. "And at least Toothless and I are a matching pair now, right buddy?"

Toothless shook his tail to show off the fake fin in his attempt to signal his agreement.

Astrid reached out and touched his hand. He smiled back and fiddled with the hammer, pushing it back and forth on the tabletop. "You know what the weirdest thing is? It's still feels like it's there."

Astrid blinked. "How is that possible?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I'm not sure, but sometimes I'll feel aches or a slight pain where my leg would have been burned. Gobbler calls it ghost pain or something like that."

Astrid frowned. "Does it hurt?"

"I'm not screaming in pain," Hiccup said quickly to reassure her. "It's just a discomfort from time to time. It's hard to explain, unless you're willing to have your leg or an arm cut off to to learn first hand?"

"I'll pass," Astrid said. "And we'll just have to make sure you don't lose any more limbs."

Hiccup nodded. "Although, I do have backup plans."

Astrid raised an eyebrow. "Backup plans?"

Hiccup flipped through the pages in his sketch book. "I've been thinking that if I ever lose an arm I could make a fake arm out of steel." He pointed to the page next to it. "I even thought of making it into a giant shield or add a sword to the end of it." He paused and a lightbulb went off in his head. "Hey, if I lose both arms, one arm could be made into a shield and the other into a sword!" He grinned madly. "Doesn't that sound awesome?"

Astrid said nothing. Gradually, she peered over Hiccup to stare at Toothless. "You and I need to make sure he doesn't lose any more limbs so he doesn't get any more crazy ideas. Agreed?"

Toothless snorted and nodded.

Astrid laughed as HIccup glared. "It's not that crazy."

"Yes, Mister mad genius," Astrid replied. "Now, let me see what you've doing with your leg."

Hiccup smiled and turned the pages to the leg design. He could care less if he lost both of his legs, just as long as he could still have moments like this.


End file.
